The dark-haired girl smirked crookedly as the police officers argued among themselves.
She knew if they'd been faced with anyone less talented in the art of "string pulling" than her they would never had argued in front of someone. In a unit like the metal-benders force, internal conflicts were worked out in debriefings, held behind closed doors and under the supervision of a superior officer.
She smiled more because the metal cable had been bent from her wrist without the police officers noticing, she shifted her weight and simultaneously slammed her foot down throwing out her left hand, the earth rumbled beneath her before it opened up and she disappeared down into a tunnel. The cops were quick to pursue her, but she seemed to have been exceptionally well trained and with their very own tactics and procedures, she knew exactly when and where to go in order to avoid their recapturing her.
Once San could no longer feel them pursuing her, she surfaced into a busy building and acted as though she belonged there.
The young adult managed to get deep into the throng of an ongoing party, there, San became quite sure she was safe from being held suspect of anything.
She took a pastry from a passing waiter and indignantly stuffed it into her mouth, causing her to chock, she was walking around a corner, coughing to get the pastry out of her airway when she walked headfirst into someone's shoulder, to her relief the impact cleared her airway.
"San," a familiar voice scolded, and san was choking again.
"... Chie-" -cough, cough- "Chief, oh wow fancy seeing you here," the older woman nearly believed her too, San had a tone to her voice that even Lin couldn't tell if it was sarcastic or earnest, if not for the fact Lin knew the person behind the voice better than that.
"Damn it, San, what are you doing here?!" Chief Lin Bei Fong crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow at the girl in front of her as she waited for a response.
San, managing to keep her cool despite the jolt of nerves running through her veins at seeing the chief, leaned back and smiled "Well, I was looking for you of course!" San stopped talking at the look on Lin's face. Damn, she wasn't fooling anyone. Lin grabbed hold of her arm, using a little more force than necessary, and dragged San towards the exit.
"Come on, kid, I'm taking you home. Its way past you're curfew!" Lin said while making their way on the street.
San made a scoffing sound and pulled her arm free, "I'm 18. Besides, I can take care of myself, Republic City's 'big-bad' streets don't scare me" she muttered as the pair crossed a street and turned a corner, heading up town.
The Chief tried not to laugh "You're still a teenager. Besides, when do you ever go through the 'big-bad streets' of Republic City?" Lin hadn't meant it as an accusation, but as a statement of fact, at least until San went quiet, "San!?" she pushed.
"Well, I just popped by some triad territories on my way home this evening... No biggy. I mean it's not like I went and nearly got arrested or anything," she said, side stepping as Lin's arm flew through the air where her chest had just been -an attempt to stop san walking away- San stopped anyway and looked at Lin expectantly.
"You what!? What am I supposed to do with you San? It's like you do these things on purpose!"
"Feed me, love me, never leave me." San said, avoiding the rest of Lin's question.
Time seemed to drag as they walked up the last hill, with Lin silently fuming.
"But you know what? You'll have some interesting stories waiting for you when you get briefed tomorrow." San said it as though this might make things better. She knew it wouldn't, but it worth a shot. Lin had such a dry sense of humor, she's been even more edgy since Ammon got away, reports came in that he and his brother, Tarrlok, perished in a boating accident. Lin refused to believe it until they found a body, and so far, there had been no word from any of the United Forces working on that particular case.
"Tomorrow; is today if you haven't noticed. It's three a.m. Aren't you tired? You look tired." Lin chided as they stopped at the front door, she flipped the lock with her metal-bending.
As they walked in, flicking on the main flight, San sighed, "You look tired. Are you hungry? I'll fix something up if you want." Lin knew the offer wasn't San being kind or caring, it was just her trying to get back onto Lin's good books and change the subject, declined the offer anyway, "No, I ate at the party, you should probably eat though... And look at the state of you! get cleaned up now. I'll fix you something while you bathe, and then it's straight to bed!" Lin dispersed to the kitchen, leaving San standing in the lounge out of sight and free to make childish faces in Lin's direction. "I'm not five anymore! You don't have to boss me around and baby me!" San called, as she headed off towards the bathroom.
"I know," Lin said, "But you're still my little girl." she heard San scoff on the other side of the house, "Besides, you were easier to handle when you were five."
"Whatever."

It was late, or rather early, when both Lin and San had cleaned themselves up and changed into loose night cloths. Lin wore a pair of black pants and a faded earth nation shirt that she used to wear when she was San's age. San wore a grey long sleeved shirt and a pair of pants, similar to Lin's but they were a very dark shade of green they almost looked black -they had been Toph's work pants at some point, and were still a bit big on San, so she rolled the waist band over to keep them up.
The pair sat at a high dining table, San ate the noodles that Lin had made her and Lin read a stack of police reports. She noticed the way San's eyes scrolled over the pages, not really reading since San couldn't read like that yet, but just searching for those few interesting words -Bei Fong, arrested, captured, urgent, important, update, threat-anything else that might have a good story attached.
"When do you think you'll get your rank back" San asked suddenly. Although Lin was technically no longer Chief of Police, it was a habit to everyone who knew her to call her that anyway. San especially.
"The council and the top ranking officers are having a meeting later today to discuss that. Since I have made an appeal to reclaim it and Saikhan doesn't want to resign from the rank, we have to put it to a democratic vote." Lin sighed, she was as disappointed in Saikhan as San was, she had hoped he wouldn't go power crazy in her absence, but it would seem that she was wrong.
Lin was so lost in thought as she filled out her paper work and reminisced Saikhan's training that she didn't notice San fall asleep at the table nor did she notice that the sun had begun to rise.
Lin wished for a moment that San was still four so she wouldn't have to wake her, but even though Lin probably could still carry San -she was small enough- at the age of five San had declared herself too old to be shown much of any affection, and certainly far too old to be picked up.
San was confused and groggy when Lin woke her which worried Lin, usually San would wake instantly alert no matter how or when she was woken, How long had San been out yesterday? Lin couldn't remember the last time she had seen the girl sleep. Two-three days ago, maybe... But... surely, she had slept since then.
Lin helped San to her room, where the shorter girl, unceremoniously dumped herself onto the bed and pulled the cover over her head. Lin couldn't help but smile and laugh lightly as she left to get a couple of hours of sleep herself. she thought she heard San muffle out "goodnight." but wasn't sure.

(Hey peoples, so I was inspired by book three to pick this up again, I think its been between a year or two since I touched this site and i'm just re-reading and re-writing this story for everyone, it was annoying me when I was re-reading it to find all the wording and lines mixed up. you'll probably find a lot of it is still really void of punctuation and spelling... I'm very dyslexic and just can't wrap my head around all that but if you get this far keep in mind what's really important... what's that you're asking? the story!
anyways. sorry about the long absence. please let me know what you think or feel, a lot of people were asking what san and lin's relationship was, to me its very obvious and its part of the storyline that no one ever actually mentions it... until some actually dose, but at the same time I think that you should get to define their relationship until then, so if you think that lin is her aunt, mother, picked her up off the street, rescued her from a shithole or whatever the case may be that's what you should believe.)